the country was chiefly to be found amongst the aristrocracy, the civil functionaries, and the lowest order of the people. The middle classes were in the main sound at heart. Of this general spirit of nonconformity, so long under repression, a great measure was undefined: rather negative than positive; and though decidedly evangelical as to doctrine, yet destitute of all fixity of principle as to polity. Hence there were multitudes of religious people who waited, so soon as the hierarchical pressure should be removed, for instruction respecting the mode of church government that should be adopted in its stead. Unhappily, as we shall see, the parliament called in what might be termed foreign aid, which instead of leading to the desired result, only confounded the fray, and superinduced an unnatural order of things. The remainder of the nonconforming spirit of the country, however, was of a positive kind, of two classes. The presbyterian element pervaded one half, and the Independent element the other. Probably there were many individuals, usually ranged under one or other of all the three classes we have specified, as well as amongst the hierarchists, who were more or less tinctured with the Erastian spirit. When Archbishop Usher's scheme of a modified episcopacy was canvassed in and out of parliament, its chief supporters were to be found amongst those last mentioned; and at a later period they were of great service in the opposition which they offered, in combination with the Independents, to the headlong measures of the presbyterians. Their great leader, Selden, expressed the view of many of the ablest statesmen and politicians of the day, who looked at questions of church polity rather from a civil than from a religious ground; and their doctrine had for a long time been growing into favour amongst philosophical and political protestants, of whom Hooker and Grotius were respectively the types. The presbyterians would not have been so formidable a party at this period, if the war with Scotland and the impolitic conduct of parliament had not made them so. In England they were not so considerable as has been supposed; and their popularity arose from the comprehension of their communion,-which admitted all good citizens, whether scripturally religious or not, to an ecclesiastical standing on the old parochial system,—rather than from any predilection for the subordinating power of their classes and presbyteries. The hereditary clanship of the Scotch prepared them to receive presbyterianism in the first instance, and to retain it afterwards; but the English mind, especially amongst the middle classes, had always shown a preference for the municipal in civil, and the purely congregational in religious polity, as a development of its own love for rational and concientious self-government. No doubt there were many favourers of presbyterianism in the House, and in the pulpits of the establishment; but the former had been elected at a time when undue favour would be shown to such parties on account of the presence of a successful Scotch army in the north, and the latter were in many instances Erastian in practice if not in principle. Although the Independents were few in parliament, they were a numerous and powerful body in the country. Proscribed and persecuted up to this time, they had learnt to attach that importance to their principles which suffering generally serves to enhance. In the livings of the establishment there were a few of this number; but more in the families of the noble and wealthy, and still more united as separatists, baptist and pædo-baptist, in various parts of the country. The name of Independent had scarcely become a party name as yet; but the principle of Congregational Independency was well understood. The scanty records of individual churches that have come down to us, are calculated to mislead the student of history in respect to the number of those who held the principles of Independency. Only a few preserved their church-books, if they were accustomed to keep such records; and the solitary instances which the page of history has preserved, are those which persecution brought to light. How many separatist meetings contrived to escape the vigilance of their persecutors, history does not tell us: and it is only by the researches and inferences of a later period that the truth can be known. It is also probable that multitudes of thoughtful and studious men approved the principles of Independency, who never had the opportunity of practising their principles, until better times arrived. Lord Brooke may have been a member of an Independent church at Warwick, as tradition informs us, and probably some other parties, little suspected in their day of having formed such associations, may have enjoyed similar privileges; but how many could not thus act! Living in retirement, and deriving their views from books, instead of the living voice, they would keep their own secret, until the era of comparative freedom arived; and then to their surprise they would find that the kind of fellowship after which they had been aspiring, had been enjoyed for years in their own town or village, without their being aware of it. The manner in which Jacob's church comes into public light, many years after his decease, is a singular confirmation of these remarks. After many migrations from place to place, and many changes of fortune under the successive pastoracies of Lathorp, Canne, Howe and More, it settles at last in Deadman'splace, Southwark, at the house of Richard Sturges, one of the members. The Long Parliament has commenced auspiciously, but does not yet know its own mind in reference to religious liberty. While John Milton is writing his treatise on Reformation in England, and lauding both lords and commons to the skies for what they have already done, he hardly suspects what is going on in their neighbourhood in the first instance, and in their house shortly after. Laud is in the Tower; and probably, like many others, the generous patriot imagines that the reign of tyranny is over. But it is not so yet. The spirit of Laud yet lives in the hearts of constables and church-wardens, who have a secret dread lest their master and whipper-in may break from his durance, and make them pay the penalty for neglect of duty. Besides, the Star Chamber and High Commission, though doomed, are not yet destroyed; and who can tell at present, whether the parliament or these shall obtain the victory in the struggle already commenced? On the 16th of January, therefore, the churchwardens of St. Saviour's take what they deem the wiser course; and repairing with their constables to Deadman's-place, seize whomsoever they can lay hold of, and take them before the marshal of the King's-bench. The marshal receives the charge against them, of violating the law of the 35th of Elizabeth, which requires that they shall go to their parish church and hear Common Prayer. But he condescends to ask them why they refuse to do so. The principles of these men are given in their reply, recorded in the Lords' Journals :—“ -“They answered, That the 35th Elizabeth was not a true law, for that it was made by the bishops; and that they would not obey it. 2. That they would not go to their parish churches: that those churches were not true churches; and that there was no true church but where the faithful met. 3. That the king could not make a perfect law, for he was not a perfect man. 4. That they ought not to obey him, but in civil things." It is also added, "that some of them threatened the churchwardens and constables, that they had not yet answered for this day's work." They were forthwith committed to the Clink prison. On the 18th of the same month they were brought before the House of Lords, with the marshal, churchwardens, constables, and witnesses, and examined before them. No doubt, Lords Brooke, Say, and Wharton were present, and helped to conduct the examination. Here, then, were men holding principles identical with theirs, only more consistently carried out,-quite unknown to them, and persecuted under their very eyes. After being admonished, they were released, never to be maltreated again by churchwardens and constables for many a long year. - Probably Lords Say and Brooke hardly knew at this time how far these Christian men, and the "sixty more" with whom they held fellowship, were of their own party; or they might have saved them from the admonition they received. Moreover, the order afterwards passed by the lords-"That the said sectaries should repair to their parish churches, to hear divine service, and to give obedience thereunto, according to the acts of parliament of this realm,"- |